Thursday, January 19, 2012

My first comic! (I'm aware that sounds like a children's book.)

As you may have seen in my earlier post about Womanthology, I'm now officially a comic book author. In case you're wondering, I am indeed doing an embarrassing happy dance right now. It's best that you don't see it.

Me at the Comikaze Expo "Womanthology" panel in front of Janet Lee's art for "Ladybird."
The second one (which I actually wrote first) is "Archetypes," with art by the fantastic Elisa Feliz. That one is about a woman who dreams in archetypes and solves crimes. Weirdly enough, I wrote it on a plane back from New Orleans. Neither of these are exactly what you'd call "fluffy, happy" stories. In fact, when I was lucky enough to get comic legend Jim Lee to critique them, he said, "Wow, you're really dark!"

Me at the Comikaze Expo "Womanthology" panel in front of Elisa Feliz's art for "Archetypes."

Anyway, we were recently asked to contribute a holiday piece based on our work for Womanthology supporters. Now that we're allowed to share it with everyone, here is mine. This one is a short story based on "Archetypes." Elisa Feliz did the pinup above to go with it. Give it a read and let me know what you think!
Stay tuned for information about "Womanthology" signings at Emerald Knights, Meltdown and others, and pre-order your copy here. xoxo

"Archetypes: A Christmas Crime"

The white trim on his suit glowed in the black light. Wait, that seemed odd. What would Santa be doing in a club? Well, it was Los Angeles. The Beverly Hills mall had a shirtless “Hunky Santa” every year, so I guess it's not that weird. Right, back to the dream. As he moved through the throbbing, surging crowd of dancers, the pack on his back seemed to be weighing him down. Scene change. A sneering Santa moving around a Christmas tree. He laid down his empty sack in front of the fireplace and eased himself down on the couch to eat the cookies that were left out for him. Empty sack, huh? Oh god...

Suddenly, it was like someone was ringing the damn jingle bells from his sleigh in her ear. Stupid phone.

“Hello? This had better be good, Prince Charming. I was dreaming.”

“Ha! I knew you still dreamed about me as the Prince.”

“Oh shut up. You're married now and I have a crime to report. I think.”

She turned to look at the picture of him next to her bed. You don't dream about Prince archetypes very often. Stupid her for letting this one go. She didn't know how this whole dreaming thing worked back then, but you'd think she would have been smart enough to hold onto him.

“Alright cop. Here's the deal. I dreamed about Santa...”

He snorted. “Really? But he's...

“I know. He's not an archetype. But he is a symbol. I guess it makes sense. I don't know. This stupid gift didn't come with instructions. Also, if this particular Santa shows up in my house, I'm converting.”

She heard laughter on the other line. “From what to what, pretty lady?”

He loved teasing her. Princes might be good guys and end up as cops, but they certainly mess with your head. “Couldn't tell what he had in his sack, but it was heavy. He moved through a club with it, then ended up in a house in front of a fire with an empty one.”

“So what am I looking for here? A guy in a Santa suit who likes dance music, cookies and milk?”

She sighed. “The Santa symbol means comfort. Presents. Once a year...they leave things at your house...hmm. Any reports of a missing person?”

“If this is the usual scenario, we'll get one tomorrow. Grandpa got drunk and kidnapped his grandson. Someone killed someone else and dumped them in the chimney. Definitely someone close to them or they wouldn't have let them in. I suppose it's too easy to assume this is a mall Santa?” he said.

“Yeah, well, it's rarely that literal. Good luck with that though.”

“Listen, what are you doing for Christmas? Come have dinner with my wife and I. I can't stand the idea of you being alone.”

Her heart skipped. She was never going to tell him his wife was the Evil Queen. Sure, she knew exactly what that woman had done to take her Prince away, but he was happy. He might be a flirt, but you could see the love in his eyes when he spoke about her. She'd let him have that a little longer.

“I have plans.” She didn't. “Have a Merry Christmas though. Goodnight Prince Charming.” She hung up and rolled back up in her blanket. Yeah, let him have a few more weeks of peace. Something big was coming. She felt a dream coming on...

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About Me

Jenna Busch a host/writer and reporter of all things geek and the founder of Legion of Leia, an initiative to support women in Sci-Fi. She's the co-host of Most Craved for CraveOnline and co-hosted 'Cocktails With Stan' with the legendary Stan Lee. She's a contributing author to "Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind" and four other books in the Psych Geeks series so far. She's written for sites like Zap2it, After Buzz TV, Fanhattan, Screen Crave, Inside Horror,
Huffington Post, AOL, Popeater, Newsarama, JoBlo, Blastr, UGO, IGN,
Moviefone, SheKnows, Coming Soon, Screen Junkies, Famous Monsters and
Geek Week and Inside Horror. Member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA)
and a board member of the Broadcast Television Critics Association (BTJA). She's appeared in the film "She Makes Comics," on NPR, Al Jazeera American, on the premiere episode of 'Tabletop' with Wil Wheaton, as well as in Season 3, she's been a guest on 'Geek DIY' with Bonnie Burton and a winning contestant on Jace Hall's 'Fan Wars.' She has two stories in the comic anthology, "Womanthology." She's been a
guest host on G4's Fresh Ink and a guest on PODCrash, My Geek Lady, ComiCenter,
JoBlo Movie Podcast and more. A New York transplant living in Los
Angeles, Jenna has been on many sides of the entertainment industry.
Makeup artist, (don't stand too close, or she'll glue something to you)
actor, (stopped because she felt that replacing body parts with silicone
was the first step towards becoming a cylon) and finally writing, which
allows her to work in her pajamas.